Interesting question Tai_pan...
I think first we must go back to the basics. The reason (presumably) snakes and many other reptiles lay so many eggs, is because most will not survive. Hence "survival of the fittest". Now with that being said, YES, we do "artificially" keep many many snakes alive that simply wouldn't make it for whatever reason!
Spirit-
Captive herptoculture is definately still in it's infancy! As for the reason the "wild" snakes are mentioned so often is quite simple. We as keepers, if you will, we try to duplicate the "wild" as close as possible. Snakes are not domesticated creatures such as dogs or house cats. If snakes are not "happy", if they are stressed or completely out of their element they will not breed and may not survive at all! There are many species that are still not yet breeding very frequently or some not at all because we have not figured out the right mix for housing, temps, humidity, etc.
I have to agree with Tai_pan here. Large or even moderate size breeding facilities certainly can't and don't feed 100's or 1000's of snakes in serperate containers. Right now, I'm feeding roughly 40 snakes and we are just now getting times down to about 4 hours. (That includes spot cleaning cages and washing/refilling water dishes between TWO of us)
I have some snakes that are shy about eating and won't eat in front of us. Do I leave the mouse in the feeding container over night? No, I put a cheapo bar coaster in the normal housing and place the mouse on top. The hopes are that the snake can eat the mouse off the coaster and not have to worry about consuming substrate. However, the truth of the matter is some of these very same shy snakes tend to drag their meal all around before they consume it! Thus, surely ingesting some aspen along the way. I for one have not had any problems with impaction.
Another point of interest may be...
Corn snakes in the "wild" eat a variety of things. Some snakes may not eat for weeks or even months but then when they find a meal they will literally gourge themselves! Meals may consist of small rodents, small birds (maybe eggs as well), a variety of lizards. It's also a know fact that corn snakes will also eat carion in the wild (dead animals, road kill)
My personal conclusion is this. While it's said not to feed in the normal housing upon any sort of loose substrate, this is just a precautionary measure. Why create a "possible" problem if it can simply be avoided all together? I think that ingesting substrate is more of a concern for hatchlings rather than yearlings or adults just on a sheer size concern. Obviously a full grown snake will have an easier time passing a small piece of aspen rather than a hatchling!
Last but not least. If you took a poll of large scale breeding operations, I think you find that many don't use a loose substrate at all. Many use newspaper instead, which there is no concern for ingesting small pieces. Drop a live or dead mouse in and move on to the next cage. In the morning they come back to remove any prey item not eaten.
I don't much care for newspaper substrate, myself. But then again I have a "managable" collection so far. Eventually it could become so much of a hassle and so time consuming that I could change my views and switch!
This is a good topic of discussion. I'll be interested in seeing some other views as well as some input from all you larger scale breeder, you know who you are!
Regards,
Quigs
